Approximately 15 hours before the gun was scheduled to go off, Sunday morning’s Cowtown Marathon and Ultramarathon were canceled, due to snow and sleet in Fort Worth, Texas. Saturday’s 5K and 10K races had been canceled a day earlier, but it initially looked like the marathon and ultramarathon courses might be salvageable. In the end, only the half marathon race took place, with a one-hour delay.

A statement from race organizers announcing the cancellation read, “The full and ultramarathon courses take in a considerable amount of secondary streets in shaded neighborhoods and the Trinity Trail, which will not be passable for runners by Sunday race time.”

The marathon and half marathon courses use roads on the on the south side of Fort Worth, which was hit harder by the storm. The north side of town, where the half marathon runs, was in considerably better shape.

"People have to remember between the three courses, it's 31 miles of course, and 31 miles of course in Texas can [be] a big difference," Heidi Swartz, executive director of The Cowtown told WFAA[1].

Marathon and ultramarathon entrants were offered spots in the half marathon race. Race organizers also increased the half marathon’s prize money by $6,900 after the cancellation of the longer races. As a result, seven women and five men surpassed the previous event records of 1:09:27 (men) and 1:18:05 (women) and earned a share of the $16,000 course record bonus.

WFAA reports that approximately 30,000 runners signed up for the weekend’s races. A total of 6,571 runners completed Sunday’s half marathon, down from 7,095 the year before.

Following the cancellation of the race, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas Half Marathon announced[2] that it would offer spots in its March 22 race to some of the displaced Cowtown runners.

The cancellation of The Cowtown’s marathon and ultramarathon marks the second time in less than 15 months that a marathon in the Dallas-Fort Worth area has been canceled due to winter weather. In December of 2013, the Dallas Marathon was canceled[3] after an ice storm hit the region.

Swartz told NBC 5[4] that the only time The Cowtown had run into a problem like this in the past was in 1979, the inaugural year of the race.

“There were only 600 runners that year,” Swartz said. “So it was easier to take place with 600 runners versus 28,000 or 30,000.”